2009

Damon and Iris have been pretty much inseparable since that night in 1923. She likes to think of him as an older brother, but outwardly admitting it would boost his ever-growing ego.

Currently in his car, Damon is trying, and failing, to convince Iris to enroll in Mystic Falls High School as a freshman just to spy on Stefan.

"You don't even have to be a good student. Cause as much havoc as you want bring me information on Stefan." He argued.

"I don't know if you remember, but he threw me! Twice!" 

"Oh please, if anything it was like a light toss at best. He has his humanity back on, so he's a good boy now. Surely, he frowns at the idea of throwing children now, hopefully." 

Iris deadpanned him at his ridiculous claim, but she was forever loyal to him as he was to her. It was just how deep their connection was. He was reckless, she was tactful. Together, they were organized chaos. Who doesn't like a little chaos? This shitty town certainly needed it, that's for sure.

"Pretty please with a cherry on top?" He fanned innocence knowing that it was only a matter of time before she gave in.

"Fine." She groaned at the idea of going to school. 

Damon clapped excitedly to have her in his plans. "Great! Compel your way in there. And let's get this thing on the road. Do you need me to pack a lunch for you?" He joked.

"Damon." She scolded with a frown on her young face.

"Alright, I'll stop." He pulled up to the dreaded school that was filled with ignorant teens. "I'll even pick a good room for you at the boarding house."

"How long are we staying here anyway?" She asked. "Long enough to drive Stefan crazy." He answered. "Now, get out. I'll pick you up afterward."

"Whatever." Iris exited the car and made her way to the school.

******

Walking through the crowded hallway, Iris saw the infamous Petrova doppelganger being comforted by a ditzy blonde.

She listened to what was unfortunately the tail end of the conversation, managing to only catch goodbyes and see you laters.

The teen girls started walking behind her. Iris would rather have her eyes on them, but they weren't her main priority right now.

'SHIT!'  

Iris spotted Stefan in the office compelling the worker to admit him into classes. So, she continued walking, focusing on hearing Stefan. Managed to listen in on the two teenage girls complimenting Stefan's "hot back". This caused a disgusted look to appear on the small vamp's face.

"I'm sensing Seattle, and he plays the guitar." The doppelganger's friend said while squinting her eyes.

"You're really gonna run this whole psychic thing into the ground aren't you?", said the doe-eyed beauty.

"Pretty much."

Iris stopped standing in front of a random closed locker pretending to struggle with the lock.

She could hear the worker processing Stefan's requests, he would be preoccupied for a bit then. This allowed Iris to focus on the girls more.

"Need help with that?" A taller boy said noticing her "struggling" with the locker.

"No." Iris just wanted to get back to snooping, but everyone in this town was cheerful and always ready to lend a helping hand.

The doppelganger was now making her way to the boys' restroom following some guy.

"I would hope not, considering that you're trying to open my locker." The boy kept pestering her. Understandably so, but she just wanted to stalk without interruptions.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. My head gets all confused when numbers come into play." Iris said with a fake Valley Girl accent. 

"So, you're new here?" He continues to pester her.

"Leave me alone." Iris quickly compelled him.

She managed to get a glimpse of Stefan walking towards the restroom that the doppelganger went into. They bumped into each other and had an awkward conversation.

When Stefan went into the restroom, Iris took that as her chance to get herself admitted into the school system. 

******

Iris was sat in the back of Stefan's history class. He surprisingly hasn't caught on to the fact that he's being followed. In plain sight as well. All of his attention belonged to who Iris now knows as Elena Gilbert.

Anytime she's in a room, Stefan's eyes are on her, and Iris's eyes are on Stefan.

******

It was now the end of the school day and, as promised, Damon picked up Iris from that dreaded place.

They were now in his car, still following Stefan who was on foot.

"So, the whole day Stefan had his eyes on, who I thought was Katherine, but it's another Petrova doppelganger. Her name is Elena Gilbert, she's been in Mystic Falls all of her life. Best friends with a Bennet witch." Damon pulled faces of intrigue at the observations I recalled. "Brother is a druggie, which stemmed from the loss of their parents over summer break."

"They were the ones over the bridge, remember?" Damon added on.

"Yep. Because of that, they live with their Aunt, I have yet to get information on her." Iris finished up her recap.

"Thanks for the watchful eye, Sherlock."

"I better have my own bathroom." Iris deadpanned as the duo stopped at a cemetery as a result of following Stefan. "A cemetery, seriously?"

"Told you, when he has his humanity on, he's a broody guy," Damon responded while exiting the car. "I'll be back." He went on quickly and quietly following Stefan.

Iris took this alone time and looked around at the bustling town behind her. The smiles that were shared between friends and families. The way that surrounding teenagers believed that their relationship problems equaled the end of the world.

It was all so...

stupid to her.

Well, not "stupid" but unnecessary. How about that for better wording? Yeah, unnecessary. It was unnecessary how people's lives revolved around love. She didn't believe in love. She believed in loyalty.

A lot of the time, she thinks it's because she died before she experienced it. Or maybe she could've been loved back then, but she wasn't because she's unlovable. 

Iris snapped out of it, telling herself to stop being so childish. Love is a hoax created to normalize obsession. And that's all.

Damon returned to the car in a bit of a mood. It was especially obvious when he didn't make any type of witty remark after a while.

"What's with you?" She asked breaking the rare silence between the two.

"Nothing of importance, not to you anyways."

"If it's about you, then yeah it's important to me."

"I'm fine, shortstack. I'm fine." Damon said slowly coming back to his naturally pompous demeanor.

"If you say so." Iris leaned back in her seat. "There's going to be some bonfire hangout thing later for the school. Elena should be there meaning Stefan as well."

"Why not add two more to the roster?" Damon's famous smirk made its appearance.

******

Iris was unfortunately back in the class about this boring town's boring history.

The douche teacher went around the class asking students about how many casualties blah blah blah.

Iris would've fallen asleep, but then the teacher caught a nasty attitude with Elena.

"I was willing to be lenient for obvious reasons, Elena. But the personal excuses ended with summer break." Tanner the 36-year-old virgin said.

"There were 345 casualties." Stefan, ever the knight in shining armor, remarked. "Unless you're counting local civilians."

"That's correct." Tanner the rejected dummy said. "Mr...?"

"Salvatore."

"Any relation to the original settlers here at Mystic Falls?"

"Distant."

"Well, very good. Except there were no civilian casualties in this battle." Tanner the dusty, sad, and pathetic little man said.

"Actually, there were 27, sir." Stefan combated. "Confederate soldiers opened fire on a church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss. The founder's archives are stored in Civil Hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts, Mr. Tanner."

The students in the class were very impressed that someone managed to shut up Tanner for once. If Iris wasn't incognito, she probably would've given him a piece of her mind as well.

******

Our favorite duo made it to the school's bonfire watching the naive crowd having fun like an early 2000's TV show.

"They don't know good music," Damon said as they stayed hidden.

"They don't know anything."

"I got a plan for a dramatic entrance. Make sure no one is watching," Damon says as he locks on to a teenager who's all by herself away from the party.

"You got it." He managed to get the girl without making a huge scene. As he bit her neck drinking her blood, Iris fed from her wrist for a little drink. She doesn't like to get blood everywhere.

When Damon was done, he just dropped her to the ground with no care at all. They hurried and left when they heard Elena and her brother coming.

******

The duo made it to the Boarding House just in time with Stefan. Damon made it to the balcony, shocking Stefan to his core.

"Damon." Stefan truly couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Hello brother," Damon said dramatically.

Iris stayed hidden listening to their bickering.

"It's a bit much don't you think."

"Well, I couldn't miss your first day of school. Your hair's different."

"It's been 15 years, Damon." Stefan sulked.

"Thank God. I couldn't take another day of the nineties. That horrible grunge look? Did not suit you, remember Stefan, it's important to stay away from fads." Damon rebutted.

"Why are you here?"

"I miss my little brother." 

"You hate small towns. It's boring. There's nothing for you to do." Stefan said.

"I've managed to keep myself busy."

"You know, you left that girl alive tonight. That's very clumsy for you," Stefan said.

"That could be a problem, for you."

"Why are you here now?" Stefan asked.

"I could ask you the same question. However, I'm fairly certain your answer could be summed up into one little word: Elena." Iris could feel Stefan's heart drop when Damon mentioned Elena. "She took my breath away. Elena. She's a dead-ringer for Katherine. Is it working Stefan? Being in her world, being around her? Does it make you feel alive?" Damon poked at him.

"She's nothing like Katherine." Stefan defended.

"Well, let's hope not. We both know how that ended. Tell me something, when's the last time you had something stronger than a squirrel?"

"I know what you're doing, Damon. It's not gonna work."

"Yeah? Come on. Don't you crave a little?" Damon provoked.

"Stop it." Damon just kept pushing Stefan trying to get him angry.

"Let's just cut to the chase. Go straight for Elena!" He kept hitting Stefan.

"Stop it!" 

"Imagine what her blood tastes like! I can."

"I SAID STOP!" Stefan's face transformed and he tackled Damon out the window.

It took a while for Stefan to get off the ground, which gave Iris plenty of time to patronize him.

"I give it a four, missing style. I was pleasantly surprised otherwise. And I'm holding a grudge against you. The whole face thing you did was pretty good too." She circled him as Stefan managed to stand up.

"It's all fun and games to you two, huh? But wherever you go, people die."

"That's a given," Damon said

"Not here, I won't allow it."

"We'll take it as an invitation." 

"Damon, please. After all these years, can't we just give it a rest?" Stefan pleaded.

"I promised you an eternity of misery. So, I'm just keeping my word."

"Just stay away from Elena."

"Where's your ring?" Iris called out.

Stefan looked at his hand and noticed how bare it was. Worry filled him.

"Yeah, sun's coming up in a couple of hours. And poof! Ashes to ashes." Damon kept it going.

"Relax, I've got it right here." Iris walked up to Stefan and held out the ring in front of him.

Hesitantly, Stefan grabbed it from her and put it back on. The second Iris sees relief in his stature, she grabs him by the throat and throws him a couple of yards away.

"You should've seen that coming." Iris felt a sense of completion now that she finally accomplished one of her many goals to do in her long life.

"You should know that you aren't stronger than us. You lost that fight when you stopped feeding on people. I wouldn't try it again."

From the distance, Damon heard Zach moving around.

"We must've woken him up. Sorry, Zach" He said as he moved towards the house, leaving Stefan on the ground again.

"Can you show me my room now?" Iris followed behind Damon.

"Oh yeah, you'll love it. It has pink walls and fluffy teddy bears."

"Damon." Iris deadpanned.

"I'm kidding, I would never."

******

AND DONE!! Sorry for leaving y'all with just the prologue for so long, but this is about 2,000 words. Does that make up for it? Anyway, I wanted to include Iris's frozen age somewhere in here, but I just couldn't find a spot so here:

She became a vampire at 12, so that's what she looks like.

I'll dive in on the love topic more in the story, but she DOES NOT have a love interest.

Thanks For Reading! 

<3 TAMARA